


Signals

by orphan_account



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Sexy Zone
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-12 07:56:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2101701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuma was crushing on their Senpai, and Juri pushed him to do something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signals

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a tiny AU I thought off while on the plane to Tokyo. Hope you like it! Thanks to Jen for her big help when I was stuck!

Fuma’s POV

„Fuma!“ Juri snapped his fingers in front of my face, making me blink as I turned to him in confusion. “Have you listened to anything I have been telling you in the last two minutes?!”

“Huh?” I asked obliviously, honestly unaware that he had been talking to me, and Juri snorted as he leaned back in his chair in defeat. 

“Seriously, if your crush for Nakajima-Senpai becomes anymore obvious, you’re gonna be drooling all over yourself throughout classes.”

“What the-?!” I groaned, hitting him with my book in horror, both because of his words and because of the volume of his voice, in a class room full of students, but no one seemed to have heard him because everyone kept minding their own business, chatting with friends or noses stuck in their books. “I have no crush on anyone!” I protested, much more quiet now, though I knew the deep blush on my face was probably giving me away, especially to Juri who had known me since middle school. 

“No, and that’s why you have been staring at him ever since we entered the class room and he said hello” he returned drily. “You have never been very subtle, Fuma.”

I was about to snap something back, but then the professor finally entered the room, and I cut myself off grudgingly to turn my attention to the front. 

Of course, Juri had hit the nail on the head, I thought silently as I flashed a short look to the other side of the class room to where Nakajima Kento was resting his chin on both hands, intently following whatever it was that the professor had started talking about. 

Nakajima was a third year in social studies, which meant he was one year above me and Juri. Due to our different directions of studies, I hadn’t even met him until two months back when the semester had started. The English course we were taking together was mandatory for many subjects, and so students of almost all faculties and semesters were to be found here. I had always made friends easily, but something had been different when during the very first week, I had been assigned for a presentation with Nakajima. 

It was hard to explain, but somehow we had clicked and not only had the presentation we had come up with been super fun to prepare and well-received, but we had also found ourselves hanging out together after our study sessions, talking for hours and never running out of topics.

Before I had known it, the two periodical English lessons had become the highlight of my week, even though I had cursed the university for having to take them in the first place, but somehow, only seeing Nakajima smile at me and exchanging a few words with him cheered me up enough to have me grinning for the rest of the day. 

It had taken a few weeks for me to realize what was going on, and when I finally had, I had already been in way too deep to fight it. I had never been into guys, all my previous relationships having been strictly heterosexual, but there was something about what Nakajima’s big brown eyes did to my nerves when he looked at me, and how his bright smile made it hard for me to breathe, that made him different from all my guy friends. 

I sighed to myself in frustration as I tried to focus on class, but my mind was spinning with the complicated things I was feeling, making me feel more helpless than I had ever been in my whole life. I had no idea how to deal with this, and how to do anything about the situation, so the only thing that had been happening was me progressively behaving more and more like a love sick high school girl, apparently being obvious enough to even alert an idiot like Juri. 

I only needed to wait until the end of the class to hand Juri another proof, even, my head spinning when suddenly, Nakajima was standing in front of my desk, making me freeze in the movement of packing my things to stare at him. 

Nakajima was smiling, that soft, bright smile that always made it a little hard to think straight for me, and then his lips were moving and he was talking and I needed to force myself to tune in on what he was saying.

“-brought that book about the American influence to post-war Japan that I told you about. It helped me a lot in my essay in the first semester, and though your approach is more economical than social, it might help you for that presentation you were thinking of doing?”

“Oh” I only returned, a little stunned as I took the book out of his hands. “Thanks for remembering, that’s really nice of you.”

“No problem” Kento smiled, shouldering his bag. “Just keep it as long as you need it. Sorry, I have to rush to my next course, talk to you next week!”

I nodded, staring as Kento waved and took quick steps towards the door, disappearing out of my sight. I looked after him in almost a trance before glancing at the book, and finally, to Juri, who was grinning at me smugly.

“Don’t look at me” I snapped, and Juri snorted.

“Just admit that you are having a crush” he demanded. “It’s okay, I won’t judge you. He is good-looking. A little too weird for my taste, but I saw enough of the girls fawning over him to be pretty sure that he is popular.” 

“Stop it” I groaned, not at all liking the thought of being compared with the obnoxious groups of girls trying to involve him into conversations regularly. When Juri just kept looking at me silently, I groaned in frustration and finally whispered: “Okay, maybe I do like him a _tiny_ bit.”

“More than tiny” Juri noted with a chuckle. “You should really do something about it, you know. I am pretty sure you two could have a thing. He does not seem to be into girls anyways.”

“You don’t know that!” I hissed. “I can’t just _assume_ and hit on him, you know. He will run for the hills.”

“But you can ask him out privately” Juri shrugged. “You get along well, it would be totally okay to hang out together. And everything else could go from there.”

I only groaned, and Juri snickered. 

“It’s rare, to see you so hung up over someone” he noted. “Usually it’s girls confessing to you and you just going with it. This is new, and kind of cute.”

“Shut up, seriously” I groaned, finally throwing my stuff into my bag and standing. “You are so annoying, why am I even friends with you!?”

“Because you love me, and because you are afraid of my brothers” Juri grinned. 

I snorted and turned around, and Juri had to hurry to catch up with me.

“So, do you want any help?” Juri checked. “If you’re too shy to ask him out yourself, I am sure I can give you a little push!”

“No!” I said immediately, having had enough experience with Juri and his meddling for a life time. “I will do it. Just give me some time.”

“Okay” Juri shrugged, seeming satisfied, and I wondered just what I had promised him. 

***

It took me two more weeks and several threats from Juri to finally make my move, though. I had spent ages on planning this out in my mind, the idea never really having left my head after we had talked about music and narrowed down the bands we both liked for the first time, but still, when I took the free seat next to Kento in the campus café, my heartbeat was beating me senseless and I felt like I was not getting nearly enough air. 

“Hey” Kento said in surprise, looking up from his homework to smile at me. “Free period, too?”

“Yup” I nodded, nervously fumbling with the seam of my shorts before bursting out: “Are you free next Sunday?” 

“I think so?” Kento frowned, thankfully not commenting on how awkward I was behaving, though I was sure that it was terribly obvious. “Why?”

“I have concert tickets for Flumpool” I explained, trying hard to sound casual and tune down the high pitch of my voice. This was ridiculous. I was usually never that nervous about any kind of social interaction. “Actually I wanted to go with Juri, but he has some family thing planned there, so he can’t come. And since I know you like them I thought I’d ask you.”

“I’d love to go!” Kento beamed, eyes sparkling with excitement, and suddenly, I felt pretty damn good about myself. “Thank you so much for asking me, I know you have tons of friends you could ask instead!”

I shrugged sheepishly because that part was true and I had not thought as far to have an excuse for it, other than the obvious, that I really _wanted_ to go with Kento. Kento did not seem interested in my explanation, though, instead rambling on about songs and possible set lists, and it was easy to fall into the conversation with him after that, like we had known each other for ages already instead of just a couple of weeks, and it reminded me of why exactly Kento was worth all that embarrassment. 

***

“I have a date!” I announced brightly to Juri when I had caught up with him for economy classes. “Well, he does not exactly know it’s a date, but we are going out next Sunday nevertheless.”

“I am proud of you, my young Padawan” Juri said strongly, making me role his eyes at him. “You are making progress. Where are you going?”

“The Flumpool concert” I smirked. “If it should ever come up in his presence, I bought the tickets for the two of us but you are busy that day.”

“What the hell, Fuma!” Juri called angrily. “I really wanted to see that concert, too! Why can’t you take _me_?!”

“Seriously?!” I glared, and Juri pouted, murmuring something about “Bros before hoes”. “You were the one pushing me to ask Nakajima out all the time, so don’t you dare complain now!”

“Next time I have concert tickets, I am going to ignore you, too” he hissed.

“Whatever” I scoffed. “You can’t ruin my mood. I have a date.”

“You know that you need to make it clear to him that this is what it is, though, right?” Juri noted. “If you don’t make a move at him, he will think you are just hanging out.”

“I know, I know” I groaned, cursing at how well Juri knew me and my tendency to flee when it came to showing my feelings. “I will think of something.”

“I hope ‘think of something’ means ‘tell him what you feel’, because I think that’s the only way he will understand” Juri sighed. “No offense, dude, but you suck at subtle signals, because you always draw back halfway through them and are embarrassed for the next hour or so.”

“Shut up, it’s not like you’re Hitch the Date Doctor” I groaned. “Nakajima is not stupid, he will understand. He is no girl who needs everything spelled out.”

“He seems pretty girly to me” Juri shrugged, making me elbow him into the rips painfully. “Ouch, okay okay, do whatever you think works, just don’t come running to me afterwards complaining that your date was a failure because you were too much of a chicken.”

***

The next one and a half weeks went by terribly slow, and it gave me enough time to drive myself insane with the idea of a date with Kento and how the hell I was supposed to make him understand that I liked him. Juri enjoyed my emotional chaos a lot, teasing me non-stop and wiggling his eyebrows every time Kento was only in sight, so that I was already close to choking him to death on Wednesday, causing him to tune it down for the remaining two days of university. 

“Did you already choose what to wear?” Juri asked conversationally on our way home on Friday. “If you ask me, you look hottest in either black or white. Use it.”

“I am not sure that was information I wanted from you, but thanks” I sighed. “And no, I have nothing planned out, how old do you think I am, fourteen?” I did not mention that I had about three outfits I was considering, though. One of them actually included a black shirt. 

“I would wear no baggy sweaters, though, I don’t think he likes them” Juri rambled on. “Judging on his style of clothes, I mean.”

“Now I will wear one just because” I glared.

“Sometimes I seriously doubt that you understand the concept of a date” Juri snorted, and I punched him in the shoulder. “Well, no matter what, I hope you will have a good time on Sunday. As amusing as I find your crush on him, I don’t like seeing you moping around. You are no fun when you are depressed.”

“Thanks… I guess” I sighed. “I just hope I don’t make a fool of myself. I mean, if he rejects me, that’s okay, but I hope he isn’t weirded out by my feelings, because…”

“I don’t put him for that kind of guy” Juri interrupted me, for once serious. “Plus, he seems really into you, too, if you ask me. I keep catching him looking at you, too. You know, whenever you are not looking at him already.”

“You could have told me that earlier” I complained, but his words still gave me a little courage. 

“Just go for it and woo him” Juri continued, ignoring my input. “I bet you’d make a good couple, though I am not particularly interested in seeing you make out anywhere near me. Please remember that once you are all head over heels.”

“Shut up” I chuckled, punching his shoulder again, but much more gently this time.

***

I did end up choosing the outfit with the black shirt and a jeans, _not_ because of what Juri had said but because it seemed most appropriate, not too dressed up and not too casual. I regretted it a little, though, when I stood at some sunny corner in front of the train station we had agreed to meet at, cursing the heat and throwing impatient looks at the clock. 

I was not usually early, rather had a reputation for always being that tiny bit too late, but today I had actually made an effort to be punctual, not wanting to make a bad impression and starting off the day by letting Kento wait in the heat. 

Kento arrived only one train after me, still about five minutes too early, and I had to gulp a little when he smiled and waved at me because I could tell that he definitely _had_ dressed up, the short sleeved dark blazer over his shirt accentuating his slim figure perfectly. I wondered what he had dressed up for, the concert or me. 

“Hey” Kento said, a little breathless as he finally reached me. 

“Hey” I returned, gulping down the “You look awesome” that hung on my lips because Kento was no girl and it would be weird. Instead, I continued: “Ready to go?”

Kento nodded happily, and we leisurely started down the street towards the arena. We still had plenty of time till the concert started, and it allowed us to walk around for a while, soaking in the atmosphere and chatting. Kento seemed hyper, the way he got when he was talking about something he liked, and I enjoyed listening to him a lot, finding it honestly adorable.

“Really, thanks a lot for asking me” Kento said when we were finally let inside, adding, a little sheepishly: “I’ve been looking forward to this all week.”

“Me too” I answered automatically, blush following my words as I realized what they implied. “I mean… I am glad you could come, going alone would have been boring.”

“I guess so” Kento nodded, eyes on my face. “But I am still happy you asked me. I did not expect it, to be honest.”

“I… thought it would be fun, going with you” I said softly, looking elsewhere because my face was burning in embarrassment. 

Kento kept silent at that, but when I chanced a glance at his face, he was smiling softly, and it made me smile, too. 

“Do you want a drink and some snacks?” I asked, keen on changing the subject. “I’ll invite you.”

“Does that make me the girl of this date?” Kento asked with raised eyebrows, making me choke on air as I spluttered out an incoherent denial. “Just joking.”

I chuckled nervously at that, busying myself with my wallet, feeling some weird mix between disappointed and humiliation. Damn, I was not used to this at all, to liking someone so much that it made me awkward. Of course I had had romances before, but this was different, different in the way it was me reaching out this time, different with how desperately I wanted this to work out. 

“Thank you” Kento smiled as I finally pushed a cider and a box of fries into his hands. “Now let’s get to our seats, shall we?”

We were actually sitting pretty far up high, the result of me having bought the cheapest tickets over the internet, but Kento did not seem to mind, looking happy enough as we continued chatting, and I was almost disappointed when the concert started because that meant we had to stop. 

I kept stealing glances at Kento instead of the stage, mesmerized by the way he sang along to the lyrics or laughed. It took a lot of courage for me, but when they played a quiet ballad, I reached out and gently brushed his fingers with mine. 

I could feel Kento’s eyes on me, but I did not dare looking at him, instead shyly lacing our fingers together, loose enough for him to pull away if he wanted to. Except he didn’t. He squeezed my hand once in response, and when I glanced at him, his eyes were back on the stage, but he was biting his lower lip as if to keep from smiling, and I counted that as a success. 

I did not let go of Kento’s hand for about three more songs, and when I did, it was because the crowd was asked to clap along. I still felt my skin tingling where we had touched all throughout the rest of the concert, and it made it hard to focus back on the show. 

We only talked again when the concert had ended and we made our way out of the stadium, discussing details of the show, what we wanted for dinner and if we should both just skip our morning classes the next day because it was already so late. I did not expect it when in the middle of my sentence, Kento grabbed my wrist and pulled me to a halt. 

Before I could even blink, his lips were on mine. I was frozen for a moment, too surprised to even breathe, but then Kento wrapped his arms around my shoulders and brushed my lips softly, slowly easing me into the kiss, and I just melted into it, placing my hands onto his hips and kissing him back. 

It was mind-blowing, even more than I had expected it to be. Kento was more responsive than any girl I had ever kissed, gentle but not shy, and the way he seemed so sure about this made my head spin because it gave me the answer I had wanted.

That I was not alone with my feelings. 

When Kento pulled away, he was leaning his forehead against mine and smiling up at me through half-lidded eyes. 

“I was waiting for you to kiss me throughout the whole concert, but you just didn’t seem to be able to get it together. So I thought I would do it.”

I could not help but grin sheepishly, and Kento laughed, nudging my nose with his. 

“You are cute when you are embarrassed. I have never seen anyone as awkward on a date as you.”

“Shut up” I groaned. “I was scared of messing things up, okay?! We had not officially labeled it as a date, and I couldn’t just have assumed that you are gay!”

“I know, you kept trying to make it clear that this was _not_ a date and I was just a last-minute companion, no matter how much I tried to flirt… If you hadn’t taken my hand, I’d have just given up and assumed that I had misunderstood. You definitely need to work on your signals, Fuma.”

“Signals” I hissed, pulling him into me and pressing our lips together again. 

There was nothing shy about my kiss this time. It was me trying to make a point, and judging by the way Kento made soft noises into my mouth as I licked between his lips, seeking entrance, it seemed to come across. 

Usually I was not the kind of guy for public displays of affection, but as we were standing in the corner of a busy sidewalk, enveloped by the darkness of the night but still illuminated enough by the street lights for anyone to see us as they walked by, I could not even bring up an ounce of embarrassment, instead pressing against him as tightly as I could and kissing him passionately, with all the feelings I had carried around with me for the last couple of weeks. 

When we pulled apart, Kento was breathless and flushed, and I was quite satisfied with myself.

“I don’t need signs” I said firmly. “I am more the direct type.”

“Good” Kento returned, smiling again. “Then next time just tell what you are thinking directly, and don’t use Tanaka-Kun as an excuse. If you had just told me that you liked me, it would have been a lot easier.”

“I didn’t see you telling me, either” I pointed out. 

“I tried, but you stopped breathing when I called this a date” Kento scoffed. “I was not sure how far I could push.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” I shrugged, squeezing my arms around his waist. “We are together now, that’s all that counts.”

“I will be even more unable to concentrate in English now” Kento sighed, and I burst out laughing, pulling him into another kiss.

***

“Why did you not answer my mails?!” Juri groaned as he caught up with me the next morning at university. “I want to know how it went with Nakajima-Senpai!”

I just grinned, and Juri rolled his eyes.

“So it went well. Why can’t you just tell me so I don’t worry and wonder if I need to ask Koki to smuggle us into a club to drink it off?!”

“Because you are way too nosy and don’t always need to know everything” I shrugged, and Juri glared at me.

“So what happened? Did you get over yourself and tell him, or did he just have enough of your antics and took matters into his own hands?!”

“Shut up” I groaned, cursing how well he knew me, and Juri laughed, understanding without words. 

I got distracted, though, when I spotted Kento across the corridor, standing in a corner and chatting with a friend, and I smiled as I murmured a “just a second” to Juri and made my way over to him. 

When I was close enough to catch what they were saying, though, I slowed down, biting down a smirk as Kento’s friend called: “See, I told you, you should have confessed to him weeks ago instead of just moping around all this time crushing on your Kohai!”

“Shut up, Yugo, seriously” Kento groaned, and I snorted quietly as I finally caught up with them, bumping Kento’s shoulder to get his attention.

“Fuma! Hi!” Kento blinked, flushed, and I grinned as I linked arms with him, but was kept from saying anything as that Yugo guy called: “So you are Kikuchi Fuma! I heard stories about you for weeks now, nice to finally have a face to the excessive descriptions of your smile and eyes.”

“When you find a girl you like, I will tell her all about how you called our teacher ‘Mama’ in elementary school” Kento glared at him, making me snort. 

“Nothing will be more amusing than your pining over him” Yugo shrugged. “I should have recorded our conversations, seriously.”

“We should introduce him to Juri, they would get along fabulously” I murmured to Kento. “Or better not, they will make our life a living hell.”

“Too late!” Juri announced, appearing to shake Yugo’s hand, and Kento sighed before glancing at me. 

“Care to grab a coffee before class starts? I need to escape this insanity!”

“I hope ‘coffee’ means ‘making out behind that staircase at the end of the corridor, because then I am in” I grinned, ignoring the “eww” from Juri.

“Sounds good” Kento nodded decidedly, sticking his tongue out at Yugo before following me down the hallway. 

“Watch out none of the girls from our course catch you, you know they are terrible gossips!” Yugo called after us, and Kento murmured: “Do I look like I care?!”, making me laugh. 

He really did not seem to care as I pressed him against the wall in the shadow of the stair case, hungrily devouring his mouth. Instead he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back eagerly, saying “Good Morning” properly, the way we probably both had wanted to for a while now. 

Kento tasted of coffee and caramel, and I had to smile as I pulled away, burying my face in his neck and inhaling deeply. 

“I could get used to this” Kento sighed, slumping into my embrace pliantly.

“You will have to” I chuckled. “I am going to demand kisses to tide me over the day regularly now.”

“Sounds perfect” Kento chuckled, holding onto me tightly, and we could faintly hear voices behind the stair case, other students getting to their classes, but none of us could be bothered to pull away yet. 

Well, my professors were used to me being late every now and then. It would be nothing new. 


End file.
